Dutchess home to new field hockey league

Vassar College field hockey players Sam Plante, left, and Rylie Pope work on defensive strategy with members of the Dutchess Field Hockey Orange Team during a recent practice in the league's winter series.(Photo: Renae Cimillo/Courtesy photo)

Hustle. Hit. Never quit. It’s the slogan for the newest sports league that is taking Dutchess County by storm.

Dutchess Field Hockey, which began this year under coach and Pleasant Valley resident Renae Cimillo, has grown from an indoor clinic with 20 girls to a program that offers clinics, a summer camp and, most recently, a competitive fall league.

“It’s been such a positive thing – the parents, the kids, the coaches. It’s all working nicely,” Cimillo said. “I had this vision and I didn’t know what was going to happen. But it’s really turned into a positive.”

In the fall league, six teams participated each Sunday – first with practice drills and then with timed games – at Bower Park in Pleasant Valley. The girls were led by players from the Vassar College field hockey team. The Vassar players ran drills during practice, and officiate and coach during the league games.

“It’s a great way to grow the game,” said Vassar senior Emma Bracken, as she took a break from officiating a game. “It helps our players, too, because we get to refine the fundamentals.”

Three Vassar players work with each team, one as head coach and two as assistant coaches.

Vassar College field hockey players Emma Bracken, left, and Mikayla Young coach members of the Dutchess Field Hockey Gray Team during a recent game in Pleasant Valley.(Photo: Renae Cimillo/Courtesy photo)

“When you’re coaching, you get back to the basics,” Bracken added. “It’s really rewarding for us. We do it for the love of the game.”

Bracken, 21, said she wished there was a recreational league for the sport when she was growing up in Alexandria, Virginia. She took up the sport to emulate her older sister and played in high school and now college.

“They get excited for the wins and celebrate the successes,” Bracken said of her teammates’ roles as coaches. “And they use lots of moments for teaching. Many of these girls are playing for the first time. We can share with them what we know about the sport and help them have more confidence.”

On a recent Sunday, one of the teams was short several players and a Vassar player joined in to play with the girls. It propelled them to all play harder and try and keep up.

“It’s fun for all of us,” said Bracken, who added that nearly all of the 22 team players participate in the local league. “It’s a good little study break, too.”

The younger players have formed a bond with their Vassar counterparts and recently attended a game to cheer on the home team in a big win over rival Skidmore.

“I think they are really cool and nice to us. We listen to them and learn a lot,” said 9-year-old Mackenzie Velsmid. The Myers Corners School fifth-grader has grown to love field hockey so much since the summer camp, said mom Michelle Velsmid, she may even choose to play it over soccer.

Hopewell Junction mom Mary Ellen Zumbrook agreed that having the college players participate helps the girls feel more comfortable in the sport.

“She’s learning to be more aggressive,” Zumbrook said of her 10-year-old daughter Ella, a fourth-grader at St. Mary’s School in Fishkill. “She loves having the college girls there.”

The college players volunteered their time each Sunday to help with the league and were inspired to do so by Vassar assistant coach Abby Seward. Cimillo said this is the only program around that matches college players and youth for an entire season. The Vassar students are heavily involved in the players’ training and grab sticks and run alongside the young players, practicing drills and running laps, showing the girls how to avoid hacking and how to get down low and stop a ball.

“Their knowledge of the game, dedication to their job at hand, and their positive approach has made this a huge success,” Cimillo said.

For many girls, it’s an unfamiliar sport as Dutchess Field Hockey is the first recreational league in the area. In the past, field hockey play has begun in middle school or high school. Cimillo and 11-year-old daughter Amanda were hitting around outside one day when Amanda asked about a team.

“After much research,” Cimillo said, “I realized there was nothing in the area.”

She applied for and received an equipment grant from the USA Field Hockey Association and became a host site to help grow the game locally. The first clinic was held at the Hudson Valley Community Center in Poughkeepsie in February. Subsequent clinics were held there as well as at Gold’s Gym in LaGrange followed by a summer camp at Stringham Park with assistance from Arlington High School field hockey players. Future clinics will be held at Poughkeepsie Day School and The Field in Wappingers Falls.

“(The Arlington players) were such high-energy, positive role models for these girls,” Cimillo said. “Many were trying this sport for the first time, and they gave them the confidence to do it.”

Cimillo encourages parents to learn about the sport as well.

“I'm hoping the parents talk to their daughters about the skills they are learning and the rules of the game. Words like self-start, 16-yard hit, defensive/offensive corner will become common language,” Cimillo said. “The more comfortable the parents get with the game, the more they will enjoy watching the movement on the field both with the ball and without.”

During practice, Cimillo can be seen using her skills to give players one-on-one training or running the sidelines cheering the players on. A member of the undefeated state champion field hockey team at Lakeland High School, Cimillo is a member of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. She earned a scholarship and played at Div. I LaSalle University, where she was named the ECAC Scholar Athlete of the Year.

In addition to daughter Amanda, who also participates in basketball and karate, Cimillo lives in Pleasant Valley with her husband DJ and oldest daughter Julianna, who will play lacrosse at Arlington High School in the spring.

Cimillo’s love of the sport stretches beyond the youth program. She just started a pick-up league for women over 21 at Gold’s Gym. More than 20 women have signed up for the winter program at Gold’s Gym in February.

Cimillo capped her early clinics at 20 girls in grades three to seven in order to be sure the girls “were given individualized attention.” Thirty girls attended the four-day summer camp at Stringham and that number doubled for the fall program where there are six 10-girl teams that play a six-on-six, non-goalie game. Each week, the coaches focus on a new skill and a new rule of the game.

Cimillo has plans for more winter clinics and to run the summer camp again next year. The league has limited openings in winter clinics that will be held throughout Dutchess County from January to April,

“I am hoping the girls learn that it is never too late to go out there and try something new,” she said. “I want them to become students of the game – to learn by doing. Having these girls gain the confidence to continue to want to play this game and learn as much as they can is my goal.”